Real-time data pricing

Introduction

Except where explicitly stated, this tariff refers only to the information component of the total price of our Standard commercial licence (Real-time data). Handling and delivery costs will be added, together with the Additional Internet Broadcast Fee (AIBF) where applicable.

Research Project and Educational Use

The information cost will be set to zero EUR. Any handling and delivery costs will be charged to the Research Project or Educational user, which may be waived at the discretion of ECMWF.

Rules of the Costs Calculation

Basic concepts

The tariff for ECMWF Products is evaluated on the basis of an 'information unit' introduced by ECOMET, the EPU (ECOMET Product Unit).

The tariff is based on the cost of a global field at the resolution of the Centre's current resolution of the Atmospheric Model high resolution 10-day forecast (HRES), independent of its representation (spherical harmonics, regular and reduced Gaussian grid, regular latitude-longitude grid).

A unit price per EPU is applied to all Products in the Catalogue.

Priced Items

An item is defined as one or more fields that are priced as one entity.

Below are the definitions of item based on the different Product Sets defined in the Catalogue:

Price of Time Series

For a given dataset, the cost of a time-series is set to the cost of 8 parameters from the dataset, at full resolution, at all time steps in the time-series over the minimum area.

Time unit

The costing of data will be based on a time unit of :

hours for medium-range forecasts

days for ENS extended and SEAS with more frequent write-ups provided at no further information charge.

months for monthly mean data from SEAS

weeks for weekly mean data from ENS extended

3.4 Unified costing formula

The price of a requested item is based on the following formula:

EPU per item = B * A * R * E * V * D * M

where

B is the base cost, set to 20 EPUs;

A is the area factor, which is the ratio between the area provided and the area of the globe. For ocean wave fields, this factor will in addition take into account the land/sea ratio over the provided area

R is the resolution factor, defined as the ratio between the resolution of the Centre's high-resolution operational model and the resolution provided;

E is the ensemble factor, set to 1.4 see table below;

V is the valid factor, set to 1 for real-time data and set to 0 for archive data;

M is the multi-model ensemble (MME) factor, set to 1 for ECMWF products and to 1.4 for EUROSIP products;

D is the dataset factor, defined as follows:

Set Number

Product Set

D

E

Medium-range

I-i

Fields from HRES

1

1

II-i

Fields from WAM HRES

1

1

II-ii

Fields from the LAW

1

1

III-i

Fields from ENS

1

1.4

III-ii

Clusters from ENS

1

1

III-iii

Probabilities from ENS

1

1

III-v

Extreme Forecast Indexes from ENS

1

1

III-vi

Ensemble means from ENS

1

1

III-vii

Ensemble standard deviations from ENS

1

1

IV-i

Fields from WAM ENS

1

1.4

IV-ii

Probabilities from WAM ENS

1

1

Extended Range

VI-i

Weekly means of ensemble means from ENS extended

15

1

VI-ii

Weekly mean anomalies of ensemble means from ENS extended

30

1

VI-iii

Weekly means of individual ensemble member forecasts from ENS extended

Minimum area

The minimum area is set to 6 square degrees of latitude/longitude. The minimum area does not apply to archived data.

Reduced fees for small businesses

The annual fees for the provision of ECMWF real-time data to small businesses are set to:

Condition to be fulfilled

Reduced annual fee

New customer and T < 3 X

For the first two years: X/6 ormaximum information charge, whichever the lowest

T < 3 X

X/3 ormaximum information charge, whichever the lowest

3 X < T < 9 X

T/9 ormaximum information charge, whichever the lowest

9 X < T

X ormaximum information charge, whichever the lowest

where:

X = unreduced annual information charge calculated on the base of the cost per EPUT = annual turnover of the licensee's company (calendar or financial year)

The reduction does not apply to the Additional Internet Broadcast Fee (AIBF) or to other ECMWF charges. In case of ECMWF delivery, the ECMWF handling charges will be calculated as 20% of X or 20% of the maximum information charge, whichever the lowest.

Tariffs of Web Products

The ECMWF's web products are available as a whole on an "as is" basis at a price of 14,000.00 EUR (10% of the maximum charge of 140,000.00 EUR) for all commercial users. For users paying the maximum charge the access to the web products is included.

Other rules (applicable to all data sets)

Unit Price (P)

A unit price of P = 0.60 EURper EPU is applied to all Products in the Catalogue.

Maximum charge after application of discount

A maximum charge of 140,000 EUR per year will be applied.

Volume discount

The following discount scheme, based on the unit price P = 0.60 EUR, applies.

Number of chargeableEPUs per year [N]

Discount Price [EUR]

0 - 2,000

N x P

2,001 - 20,000

[2,000 + 0.6 (N - 2,000)] x P

20,001 - 200,000

[12,800 + 0.4 (N - 20,000)] x P

200,001 and more

[84,800 + 0.2 (N - 200,000)] x P

Volume limit for maximum charge costumer

Maximum charge customers may retrieve up to 100GB per day without any additional charges via the Centre's Internet link; appropriate handling charges apply if a maximum charge customer regularly exceeds the 100GB limit.

Specific tariffs for Service Provider/Broadcaster licence agreements

The licence fee to be paid by a Service Provider/Broadcaster for the use of Catalogue items will be composed of the following elements:

An Information Charge as determined by the Catalogue tariff above that will include the right to use ECMWF Products in order to create and provide any Non Retrievable Value Added Service to end users and broadcasters;

If required, an Additional Internet Broadcast Fee (AIBF) for the right to use ECMWF Products in order to redistribute Non Retrievable Value Added Services on the open Internet or to provide Non Retrievable Value Added Services to Broadcasters, where the services are broadcast over the open internet.

The Additional Internet Broadcast Fee (AIBF) shall amount to 20% of the Information Charge, as determined by the Catalogue tariff above, and shall be charged in addition to the Information Charge. The Additional Internet Broadcast Fee shall be applied only to the ECMWF Products used for the redistribution of Non Retrievable Value Added Services on the open internet and be limited to 20% of the maximum Information Charge (see 6.2). The maximum combined Information Charge and the AIBF is therefore 120% of the maximum Information Charge. The AIBF will not be subject to the reduction of the Information Charge for small service providers.